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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 07, 2003 Oracle Stretches Deadline to July 18 RIAA Warning Boosts Swapping Kazaa's Antitrust Suit Thrown Out Feds Pursue Electronic Voting Microsoft Changes Licensing Terms ORACLE STRETCHES DEADLINE TO JULY 18 Oracle has extended the deadline for its hostile takeover offer of PeopleSoft from July 7 to July 18. According to Oracle, nearly 35 million shares of PeopleSoft stock, or roughly 11 percent of the company's outstanding shares, have been sold to Oracle under the terms of the offer. Analysts suggested that the extension of the deadline increases the likelihood that the current offer of $19.50 per share will be bumped up, perhaps by around one dollar per share. The PeopleSoft board remains opposed to the takeover, having promised customers significant rebates if the company is acquired and existing products are not supported. The cost to Oracle should that happen could be as high as $354 million. PeopleSoft is also pursuing an acquisition of J.D. Edwards, a move announced prior to Oracle's offer but which the PeopleSoft board believes would be a major impediment to Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft. San Jose Mercury News, 4 July 2003 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6233945.htm RIAA WARNING BOOSTS SWAPPING Representatives of Grokster and Morpheus said file-trading activity on their services has increased by about 10 percent in recent days, not long after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced it would begin locating and prosecuting individual file sharers. Some speculated the increase is a response to what many file traders consider unreasonable action by the recording industry, while others thought the rise suggests that many users see the RIAA's threat as the "last call" to get music for free. Michael Weiss of Streamcast, the company that developed Morpheus, said, "Any time you get media attention, you get people interested to try it out." A spokesperson from the RIAA declined to discuss the recent increase in file-trading activity. Washington Post, 6 July 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7359-2003Jul3.html KAZAA'S ANTITRUST SUIT THROWN OUT A federal judge has thrown out a suit brought by Sharman Networks, which distributes the Kazaa file-trading software, against recording and film companies for what it said were antitrust violations. Sharman argued that the entertainment industry was using its position to prevent authorized copies from being traded on Kazaa. Judge Stephen V. Wilson threw out the suit, however, saying that even if record and film companies were guilty of using collective power unfairly, Sharman would not be hurt because it is not in competition with them. Wilson had previously ruled that developers of file-sharing technologies are not responsible for illegal uses of those networks. Wall Street Journal, 6 July 2003 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105752430215663300,00.html FEDS PURSUE ELECTRONIC VOTING The U.S. Defense Department has awarded a contract to Accenture to develop an Internet voting system for troops stationed abroad. Congress ordered that such a voting system be designed to increase opportunities for Americans to vote. Accenture will have the new system available for the 2004 elections. Accenture recently acquired election.com, which had developed its own electronic voting systems. Election.com voting systems have been installed by more than 170 counties in the United States and by several states. Internet News, 7 July 2003 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2231671 MICROSOFT CHANGES LICENSING TERMS To comply with parts of the government's antitrust settlement against Microsoft, the company has changed the terms under which other companies can license technology that allows Windows applications to communicate with servers. Formerly, companies that wanted to license the technology were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement even to read the licensing terms, and licensees were prohibited from suing Microsoft. Another aspect of the old terms discouraged prospective licensees involved with Linux. These restrictions have been dropped in what a Microsoft spokesman described as a "unique and unprecedented" licensing program. Despite the new licensing terms, a recent court filing indicates that some states remain concerned about some of Microsoft's actions. Those issues will be discussed at a judicial hearing later this month. New York Times, 4 July 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/technology/04SOFT.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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